Colonel Rochester's Purchase

Genesee River In New York Circa 1800 (Source: LOC)

"All in all, it is hard to understandwhat led Colonel Rochester, Colonel Fitzhugh and Major Carroll, as early as the year1802, to buy one hundred acres at the falls, on the west side of the Genesee river, and to pay what was considered a high price, $17.50 per acre.  A good part of the purchase was swamp land."

"It did seem as though those Maryland gentlemen--Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll, who had started out from Hagerstown on horseback on September day in the year1800 to see what the Genesee country was like...". [Source]

See the Col. Nathaniel Rochester House here at the Genesee Country Village and Museum site.